Digital manga virtual environment: Bitonal visualisation for texture-mapped virtual environments

Abstract

Bi-tonal and non-photorealistic architectural depictions can be employed to develop a narrative that engages the reader with not only the visual aspects, but also aspects of the storyline. Architecture is subsequently not only represented through its factual dimensions of length, width and height, but is extended to intangible realms. This paper presents a modified rendering appearance of the graphical depiction of a Virtual Environments (VE) -software to communicate design akin to Japanese cartoon (manga) depictions whereby we expand the two-dimensional manga-images into a three-dimensional VE. The modified visualisation can be used for storytelling and developing a narrative that professionals and laypersons alike easily can access, understand and interact. The bi-tonal depictions offer users to experience both, visual richness of the original model, as well as enhanced design communications. © 2012, Association for Computer-Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia (CAADRIA), Hong Kong.